The case for an online store in Bern
Bern is a federal city of switzerland, with a population of roughly 137,000, and one of the markets in Switzerland where we build online stores.
Businesses here work in federal administration and medtech; many are based around the city centre.
Logistics are supported by Bern Airport, which matters when you promise customers fast delivery.
Switzerland has very high spending per online shopper and expects multilingual stores in German, French and Italian. TWINT and invoice payment are must-haves.
For a business in Bern, the opportunity is to own the customer relationship: your own online store keeps your margin, your data and your brand, while marketplaces and social channels become additional sales routes instead of the only one.
Local details we build into every Bern project
A store that works in Bern respects local habits as well as local law. These are the details we configure first.
Currency and pricing
Prices, taxes, shipping and refunds are shown in Swiss franc (CHF), formatted the way Bern customers read them.
Language and content
We localise pages, emails and notifications into German, French and Italian where your audience needs it.
Local trust signals
Badges for TWINT and PostFinance Card, Swiss Post delivery and clear return terms reassure first-time buyers in Bern.
Domain, phone and contact
A .ch domain (or your own) builds local trust and search relevance. Contact buttons are pre-set with +41, so a customer in Bern taps once to call or message.
Talent and partners nearby
With University of Bern close by, finding people to manage catalogues, content and support after launch is realistic in Bern.
Custom-built for how you sell in Bern
Your online store is planned, designed and coded for your business model — not adapted from someone else's — and it can ship with a customer or staff mobile app on day one.
Typical clients include D2C start-ups, speciality shops, manufacturers selling direct and grocery and food businesses. Categories that sell especially well online in Switzerland — electronics, fashion, watches and luxury and groceries — get catalogue structures and filters designed for them.
We start with a requirements meeting, show you a working demo within 24 hours, and only then propose scope, milestones and budget.
Core modules we build for Bern clients
Each module below is configured — or custom-developed — to your requirements. You choose what launches first and what follows in later phases.
Branded storefront
A fast, mobile-first design on your own domain with your colours, typography, banners, landing pages and SEO-ready category structure. Revenue reports by product, repeat buyer and delivery area of Bern guide stock and marketing decisions.
Catalogue manager
Categories, brands, variants, bundles, specifications, images, videos and bulk import/export so your team can manage thousands of SKUs. Content and design can follow how customers in Bern search and buy, including German and French where you need it.
Checkout and payments
Guest and account checkout, local payment gateways, wallets, bank transfer, cash on delivery, coupons and abandoned-cart recovery. Bulk import and sync tools mean the Bern team never re-keys stock, prices or descriptions by hand.
Orders and fulfilment
Order confirmation, packing slips, courier booking, tracking links, cancellations, returns, refunds and customer notifications. Payment steps are built around TWINT, PostFinance Card and Visa and Mastercard, the options shoppers here already trust.
Inventory and locations
Stock by warehouse or store, low-stock alerts, store pickup, local delivery zones and sync with your existing inventory system. Shipping rules can use Swiss Post, DPD Switzerland and Planzer as well as your own delivery staff in Bern.
Growth and reporting
Promotions, loyalty, reviews, email and WhatsApp campaigns, plus dashboards for revenue, products, customers and conversion. Stock can be held in Bern or anywhere in Switzerland, with pickup and local-delivery options where they make sense.
Getting paid online in Bern
An online store for Bern must support the way people here actually pay: TWINT, PostFinance Card, Visa and Mastercard, invoice payment, PayPal and Apple Pay.
Gateway selection depends on your category and merchant approval; we connect the provider, reconcile payments, automate retries and refunds, and never store raw card data. Prices, taxes and refunds appear in Swiss franc (CHF).
Zone-based payment rules let you offer different options for the city centre than for outer parts of Bern.
- Apple Pay
- Invoice payment
- Visa and Mastercard
- TWINT
- PostFinance Card
- PayPal
Delivery and fulfilment from Bern
Your online store can book shipments and share tracking with Swiss Post, DPD Switzerland, Planzer, DHL Express and Quickpac, or route orders to your own riders and stores across Bern.
Delivery rules can price by distance, weight, postcode or zone, offer same-day slots in dense areas, and switch on pickup points or click-and-collect where customers prefer them.
Connectivity in the area — Bern Airport — makes regional and national dispatch from Bern practical.
Tax, invoicing and compliance in Switzerland
Tax basics: Swiss VAT (MWST/TVA) is 8.1% standard with 2.6% and 3.8% reduced rates; foreign sellers above the threshold must register.
Customer data is handled with the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP), in force since September 2023 in mind, and the storefront follows the Swiss Code of Obligations and the Unfair Competition Act (UWG), which require clear identification and pricing.
Our job is the engineering: price display with tax, invoice numbering, cookie and marketing consent, return and terms pages, role-based access and logs. Legal and tax conclusions stay with your own adviser in Switzerland.
Bern sellers: marketplace plus your own store
Selling in Bern through Digitec Galaxus, Zalando and Brack.ch gets you reach quickly, yet the buyer belongs to the platform, not to you.
With your own online store you keep the customer data, set the offers and the packaging, and still push stock to marketplaces from a single admin.
Who we build for in Bern
Popular online categories in Switzerland include electronics, fashion, watches and luxury, groceries, home and sports. Local demand in Bern is shaped by federal administration and medtech, so we often design catalogues and B2B ordering around those sectors. In Bern, we most often build online stores for:
Retail brands
For retail brands, we usually start with catalogue manager, then add payment gateways and wallets once orders are flowing.
D2C start-ups
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for D2C start-ups in Bern, connected to the systems you already use.
Speciality shops
Speciality shops get checkout and payments plus inventory and locations workflows tailored to their operations.
Manufacturers selling direct
We map how manufacturers selling direct sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Grocery and food businesses
For grocery and food businesses, we usually start with growth and reporting, then add CRM and email marketing once orders are flowing.
Multi-outlet retailers
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for multi-outlet retailers in Bern, connected to the systems you already use.
Take your Bern store onto customers' phones
A customer shopping app for Android and iOS can share the same catalogue, cart, offers and order history, with push notifications for drops, price alerts and delivery updates.
One backend serves the website and the apps, and the apps ship under your own Google Play and App Store accounts — so what you change once appears everywhere.
Order alerts, offers and abandoned-cart reminders go out on Bern time (UTC+2), in German and French if you want.
- Google Analytics 4 and Merchant Center
- Accounting and GST/VAT invoicing
- WhatsApp Business API
- Payment gateways and wallets
- Courier and shipping aggregators
- Meta and TikTok catalogues
- CRM and email marketing
- ERP and inventory software
Integrations above are examples; we connect any system that offers a suitable API, database access or approved import and export process.
Launch roadmap and success metrics
We launch the journeys that create value first, then add depth. A typical roadmap for an online store in Bern:
| Phase | What goes live |
|---|---|
| Launch store | Storefront, catalogue, checkout, payments, shipping and admin go live. Configured for CHF, TWINT and Swiss Post from the start. |
| Grow | Promotions, loyalty, reviews, marketing integrations and SEO content. |
| Scale | Mobile app, marketplace feeds, multi-warehouse and ERP sync. Reviewed against how Bern customers actually buy. |
We track conversion rate, average order value, cart abandonment, repeat-purchase rate, page speed (Core Web Vitals) and return rate on a live dashboard from day one, so Bern results are visible, not promised.
Support hours and communication for Bern
Bern runs on UTC+2, which is 3h 30m behind India (IST). With three 8-hour shifts we are available 24×7, so meetings, demos and urgent fixes happen in your working hours.
Project communication is in English; storefront content can be produced in Romansh, Italian and German. You get a named lead, direct engineer access and an NDA if you ask.
Our head office is in Chhapi, Gujarat, with an office in Hyderabad and representation in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Zambia; Bern clients are served remotely with on-site workshops when the project needs them.
